Water, Water Everywhere

After receiving 3.5 inches of rain last Thursday/Friday we received another 5 inches in a 24 hour period finally ending at 9:00am today. It was just wave after wave of thunderstorms all night long. It made for a virtual sleepless night for me after adding in the fact that Emily caught her first cold in over 2 months yesterday and I was up with her for 1 1/2 hours b/c she couldn't breathe very well. When Austin & I got up early there was water pooling in the basement. The old sump pump was either broken or not able to keep up, so after filling the shop-vac 5 times and dumping it outside, Austin made a flying trip to Waterloo for a new sump pump. Luckily everything was safe in plastic bags or tubs. The only minor casualty was a canvas tent that fell off the shelf and can be washed. Water is still seeping in the foundation in several places and part of the floor is still wet, but at least it's semi-under control!

As bad as that seems, I felt very fortunate after heading out and seeing what other people were dealing with. At least two other neighbors had water in their basements and were hauling stuff out. Downtown was in chaos. The creek that runs along the northwest side was so flooded it had cut off the north and west entrances into town. A lot of stuff west of State Street was flooded, too. KWWL (the local NBC affiliate) was broadcasting live as residents were evacuated. People had vehicles and equipment moved and parked along the streets, including the entire fire/emergency rescue fleet. The water was all the way up to halfway surrounding the grocery store, which is at least 4 blocks away from the original creek. A sandbag station was set up in the parking lot. School in Denver was cancelled along with many other small districts in the area. On the way home at noon I saw rolls of carpet stacked up on people's driveways. Below are a couple pictures, including the park by the creek where Emily & I like to slide and swing. Notice the water is half way up the twisty slide!